A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Monday, May 28, 2012

Victoria Carmen White Didn't Deserve To Die

There's a pair of disturbing memes I hear in these trans murder cases like the recently concluded Alrashim Chambers one far too often that deserve to be called out and eviscerated.

They are the ones cispeople frequently peddle that the transwoman in question 'deserved to die' because the transwoman 'deceived' them into spending romantic time with them and the cisman was justified in killing them.

Please. You cisboys (and cisgirls in some cases) are stepping to us, not the other way around.. Judging by the photos I've posted here of Ms. White, she didn't have to 'deceive' anyone into spending romantic time with her.

But back to the post. Victoria Carmen White didn't deserve to die because she wanted some romantic attention, Alrashim Chambers' eggshell fragile ego couldn't handle the fact he spent some romantic time with a transwoman and didn't want people to know that.

Well Alrashim, if you thought nobody would find out you boned a
transwoman, too late in that regard, playa playa. The whole planet
knows your business now.

Alrashim Chambers shouldn't have been acquitted, his azz should have been found guilty. The waste of DNA should be doing time in a New Jersey iron bar motel and looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life wondering if he's going to be getting unwanted romantic attention from some of his fellow prisoners.

Well, have to trust in the moral arc of the universe to work in this case now. But damn it, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of seeing far too many of our young Black transsisters die year after depressing year for just trying to living their lives to the best of their ability and nobody giving a shyt about it.

The jurors in this case get just as much blame for this as Chambers does for committing the original September 12, 2010 crime that landed him in the Essex County Courthouse in the first place.

I don't doubt that some of that transphobic 'she deserved what she got ' stench permeated the jury and was fed by the ongoing Black 'unwoman' meme that is also violently deployed against African descended transwomen. And yes, I've served on three juries in my lifetime so I know what it's like to have someone's life and freedom on the line based on the decisions you make in a jury deliberation room.

If you are doing your job properly, you think about that part of your juror's responsibility as you are weighing the evidence presented to you in addition to thinking about the person who is not there to speak for herself in this case in Victoria Carmen White.

The jury failed on both counts. Justice wasn't served and Chambers got away with murder. Instead he's walking the streets of Newark as a free man for killing Ms.
White.

Bear in mind Eseex County jurors who served on this case that the man you freed will be trying to pick up your daughters at a New York-New
Jersey metro area club near you.

You also just sent a message to every transperson living in Essex County that it's open season on transwomen and if they are killed, no biggie, player. They ain't real people, they don't matter, and we'll give you a societal 'get out of jail free' card for doing so

Victoria Carmen White didn't deserve to die, she deserved justice. Unfortunately that didn't happen in that Essex County courtroom last week for her and her family.

Victoria Carmen White mattered to her family, friends, and the people who loved her. She mattered to her extended national and international trans sisterhood. She mattered to transwomen of African descent who have depressingly seen and heard this bull feces story far too often inside our community.

She mattered because her unnecessary death painfully reminds transpeople that no matter what their location on Planet Earth is, no matter if we are trying to positively live our lives, one armed transphobic bigot can end it with little or no legal repercussions.

There but for the grace of God go I. And every time we transwomen ponder that possibility, it pisses us the hell off.

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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